Thread: Wading into pastes, sprays

I've avoided pastes & sprays, preferring the more purist pursuit of skills w/ the rocks. Recent input says this may be ill advised, so I'm trying to learn what can be had from them. I understand its easy to use them incorrectly & draw false conclusions. Any help on finding the best threads on the topic or good reference material is greatly appreciated. I'm looking at:
" p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For reference, the softer the stropping surface the less the effect of the paste...

Felt
Webbing
Linen
Leather
Balsa
As you move through this list, IMHO you increase the possibility of getting a harsh edge..."


I'm hooked on smoothness, so that needs to be a priority. The questions:
a) can linen be adequately washed so that a previously used paste/spray is effectively gone, leaving a clean enough media for the next experimental slime.

b) I have some crayon crox already. and have looked at Josh Earl's thread about pasting a hanging leather strop. Is linen pasted the same way?
c) Is used slurry from a jnat still considered a good method to experiment with? Any techniques that work best?
d) If linen is not the hot tip, and smooth is still a priority - what other material would be recommended?

'Very much appreciate your kind help, Gents.

No help here because I've been in the same all rock boat as you. But thanks for starting this conversation. I'll be watching.

Early on I tried diamond spray but had little way of evaluating what it achieved. I could probably evaluate its results better now, given more experience, but haven't really felt (sorry about the pun) the need.

We may need to bump this over to the honing section to get some help. Copied it to the honing forum.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/honing/69143-copied-stropping-forum.html#post781239

You can buy medium or hard felt cheaply on eBay. I use it.
Buy a few feet, cut it to size & stick it on some plywood paint stirrers or similar. You can even use rubber bands to hold down the 2 ends just for the experiment. Apply as many pastes sprays etc to as many makeshift paddles you want. The experiment is then in motion.
If you want to use seatbelts ,linen etc go for it but felt is cheap & works.

Hey Pinklather

I did a post on how I use my paste to go from just having a bevel to shave read on paste here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ugh-guide.html

Don't think that is exactly what you are looking for but could help.

As the materials you are asking about:
Felt- have not tried this myself but have heard people like it a lot for .5 and .25 sprays
Webbing-- I have a webbing that I have used unpasted but did not try it pasted due to when I looked at doing it just didn't seem like the best material for paste to me.
Linen-- I have no experience with at all
Leather-- Is great with the DOVO paste use on the rough side of leather for best results. On smooth leather use a #2 pencil rub it on to a folded piece of paper and then use paper to apply the rubbed graphite onto the leather. Use then wipe the leather clean. (about 60K grit)
Balsa--- this works great from Crox and Ferox.

In my experience the material doesn't indicate if a paste is going to create a harsh edge or not its the combination of paste, material and laps. That is why you need to experiment so much with paste. Its really not very different then hones. You also can create a burr on the blade with paste just like with hones if you over hone.

Also I find paddle strops to be best with paste

Hope this helps.
Be careful paste can become very addictive.

Castel, Thank You!

I've done a little with asagi slurry on linen, and it really seemed to work well, though the edge was only good for one shave after 15 strokes. One try doesn't establish a trend or property, but I dropped back to 5 strokes. If there's a guide or framework for thinking about pastes and stroke count, it would be helpful.

I've done up to 10 strokes on a 4.5" surface of felt, coated w/ Cubic Boron Nitride from the honorable Riooso. It does bring some joy to the party - tad more keenness without degrading the smoothness. He uses 4 strokes. Before I heard that, I used 10.

Have you found pressure during a stroke to help? (shades of M. Livi smacking the daylights out of that loom strop)

I appreciate your help. This post was good. 'Daunting the number of variable to run down and control.

I need a shave.

Yeah it is a little daunting with all the factors but once you find what works for you you are pretty much set for a long time before you have to replace the paste. I use the DOVO paste pretty much exclusively now and I have sharpen many razors on it and still have not had to replace the paste yet and even if I did I probably have enough of these paste to last me a lifetime after just the one purchase.

Have you found pressure during a stroke to help? (shades of M. Livi smacking the daylights out of that loom strop)

Yes I have found pressure to play a role in using pasted strops just like in honing. If I am working on 9 micron diamond or DOVO Green which are like in the grit range of a 1k and 4k stone I tend to use slightly more pressure then on DOVO black, .5 paste and .25 paste. For me I kinda think about how I strop everyday. When I strop I like to get nice draw through out my entry stroke. I am looking to feel the blade feel like it is getting sucked down into the strop. I do pretty much the same thing here with paste.

If there's a guide or framework for thinking about pastes and stroke count, it would be helpful.

From what I have found there really is no exact guidelines you can follow similar to say the pyramid system in honing. Paste is more a progression type of honing. I find most of the test you use for sharpness in honing work as well for paste. For you I am assuming you are looking to use paste after your hones so I would say treat paste in the .5 micron and .25 micron similarly to how you would use a barber hone. Do 5 or 10 strokes test the sharpness if not right go back to the paste.

Also if you are only looking to smooth out the shave after your hones and not add sharpness and you are going out to a 12 k hone DOVO black is roughly that grit and leaves a very smooth blade

Very much obliged, Castel. 'Very helpful.

I tried leftover asagi slurry on linen. Once, I did 30 strokes and the shave was outrageous, but the edge only lasted that shave. Since then, I've tried between 5 and 50 strokes. I'll be interested to see if the edges disintegrate with some number of strokes. The result on the edge is pleasing so far.
Thank You again, Castel. I appreciate it.

I don't have any experience with asagi slurry at all. How are you applying it to your linen? From your description of the edge I would say that it would seem your slurry is going towards a .1 micron area or lower. I was experiencing break down in the edge after a couple shaves off of .25 micron. The razor still shaved well but just not as sharp as those first couple shaves off the .25 micron. I don't know how much doing more strokes will help, but certainly a worthwhile experiment.

My other thought on the slurry is you may be creating something very similar to a chalked strop. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with chalked strops. Though I have been thinking about getting a linen strop with the purpose of chalking it.

Application of the asagi slurry was first collected off the stone after use, then the rehydration of some saved slurry. Rehydrated slurry needed mixing to break down clumped sediment, but it smooths out with little effort. With a hydrated slurry, the consistency of cream, I painted 'X' patterns on the linen, with some extra at the point the stropping stroke is initiated.

Comparison to the chalked strop seems fair, but I wouldn't think chalk has any abrasive quality to speak of.